Thursday, 21 August 2014

A Pleasant And Unexpected Surprise

Every day is a good day...

...but some days are really special. Today was one of those days.

It is now well over three months since I moved to my new address, and I have settled into some sort of routine. I like routine. As long as it is good, progressive, purposeful routine, it adds structure and framework to the day. One of my daily routines (weekdays only, though in my world it is hard sometimes to know if it is a weekday or not) is, at around 11.30am, to stroll down to the mailbox (which for some obscure reason is situated on the opposite side of the road, making a round trip of some 150m) to see if any mail has been left for me. That turns into a particularly joyful occasion on those days when I find one of those little green and white post office cards there, indicating that a parcel is awaiting my collection at Yea LPO.

As I said earlier, today was one of those days. So, in my little car, I trotted off to Yea to pick up my parcel and buy bread plus a vegetarian quiche and something nice for afternoon tea (my routine, in recent times, does not include any regular spot for baking).

The other package I was expecting was a seed order from My Home Harvestonline shop. I can't remember how I came in contact with My Home Harvest but a week or so ago I had ordered three different sets each of three different packets of seeds. I already have lots of seeds, some saved from my plantings at the previous place I lived in and some not yet planted from earlier years, but I needed more. Even though I had only a week earlier received 33 packets of seed varieties in an order from The Diggers Club, which is my usual source, I believe that maintaining a collection of heritage/organic seeds will prove invaluable in the coming years of food shortages brought on by economic, climate, population, and resource depletion upheavals. Forewarned is forearmed, if acted on.

I would never buy commercially produced seeds from a nursery, supermarket or similar. All the seeds that I purchase are heritage varieties and/or organically grown seeds from trusted sources. Seeds are vitally important to our welfare and none of us would be here if it were not for food propagated from viable seeds. Since there are global trends to copyright all seed varieties and invest all production and ownership of seeds in a few giant global corporations, which are the same businesses that own and produce all of the chemical fertilisers and pesticides used in global food production, the fate of humanity rests on these entities who have proven many times to not have your and my best interests at heart. They are driven by profit and are owned and operated by unscrupulous people. I do not want my future food consumption to be in any part reliant on these organisations.

Anyway, that aside, my parcel was in a sizeable Post Office carton, which struck me as odd for a few seed packets. Yet it didn't feel very heavy. Imagine my surprise and delight, when I opened it at home to find, handwritten on the invoice in addition to my requested seeds "plus the Felco prize" and another parcel wrapped in red tissue paper which contained two pairs of Felco secateurs, the Felco 300 and the Felco 310 . I had no expectation of such a windfall and there was no mention of such an opportunity when ordering. I consider myself very, very, lucky, and whether I am the only one to have received them, or not (I have no idea), I am extremely grateful to Tash for the gesture. Felco tools are said to be among the best in the world.

Consider taking a look at the wealth of advice, information and resources available at My Home Harvest.